The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-27
PROSPEROUS MEMPHIS.
A STEADYAND HEALTHY GRO WITH
DISTINGUISHES THE
Most Busy AMI Thriving and Attract.
I've City Of the Southwest
A Promising Outlook.

A Promising Outlook.
A correspondent of the Chicago
Tribune writes that paper on the
Nth inst. from this city: They are
boring holes all over the South with
diamond drills to find coal They are
sending out experts to prospect for
iron deposits. They are taking
marble from quarries never before
disturbed. They are claiming the
land over for new railroad lines,
starting manufacturing concerns,
building hotels-in short, entering
into all sorts of new enterprises, great
and small, which make a people
financially and socially strong. I he
cotton fields bloom as of yOre, the
pigs root around in the dooryards,
and the negroes lazily sun themselves
on the levees. This is the old story.
The cotton oil industry aud the en-
deavor in a thousand other direc-
tons is the new story. Northern
men sometimes talk as if they were
doing it all. This is not true.
Northern capital that has come into
the South has been powerful
stimulus, but it is a general uprising
Of the Southern people that is max
ing the. present prosperity.
The new industries and newly dis
covered resources have produced a
phenomenal activity at certain
points, such as Birmingham, Chatta-
nooga and Nashville, but quite as in
terestiug a subject of study will be
found in town which is almost out
of the line of excitement. The city
of Memphis is having no boom. 1t
is growing in SO gradual and sub
stantial a way that it will not be
oblig, d hereafter to retreat from any
advanced position it may take. Since
the war it has successfully run the
gauntlet Of three dangers-yellow
fever, debt, and bad city government.
I'VE lost 5000 people by the yellow
fever epidemic OF 1878, remarked a
citizen today. "Pshawl" replied the
landlord of the hotel. People come
in here every day whom had sup
posed to be in the graveyard" 1t is
no doubt true, however, that from
5000 to 5000 people died here dur
ing that period. The city now has a
system of sewerage and sanitary reg
ulations which leading citizens de-
clare to be perfect, and which
sanguine people claim readers the
danger of yellow fever as small as in
New York. The city certainly looks
as clean and well regulated as most
cities, and many of the buildings in
the business quarter are highly in
viting and comfortable. As to the
finances of the city, there are some
things in the past which will not
bear investigation, but everything is
now on cash basis, while the per-
sonnet and management OF the city
government are such as to prevent
corrupt jobs and insure economy.
Memphis, while itself going slow
ly enough to avoid disastrous col
lapse, will profit handsomely by the
booms in other towns of the South.
Its destiny seems to be that Of
great market town for the middle
South. 1t draws from East Tennes-
see, Southern Missouri, Arkansas,
Northern Mississippi and Northern
Alabama. Its transportation facili-
ties are such that food can be brought
hither from first hands more cheaply
than from st. Louis or any other
great market town. Very little st.
Louis -four is handled in this city.
The flour, as well as the meat. comes
from smaller towns, such as Kansas
City, Omaha and a great number of
places less widely known. Mean
while it is obviously a much better
distributing point for the vast area
of country above mentioned. The
river is the most important avenue
of commerce because it regulates all
the rest. An oppressive combination
of the railroads would be impossible
even in the absence of the interstate
commerce law, and very much is ex-
pected of that measure by the peo-
pie in this part of the country.
There are eight lines OF railroads
running into the city from all quar-
ters, and others are projected. One
of the most important lines is the
Kansas City, Springfield (Missouri)
and Memphis, which cuts in behind
st. Louis and reaches a great source
Of food supply. Jay Gould's Iron
Mountain extension awaits only the
subsistence of the Mississippi over
flow on the Arkansas side to COM
plete its connection with the great
terryboats which bring cars to the
east side of the Mississippi. A po-
tent factor in the commerce of the |
city is the Chesapeake and Ohio road,
which brings Memphis in direct con
nection with Huntington's entire
system. Cotton can be carried to the
East on this line as cheaply as by the
river and the ocean, partly because
of the high cost of insurance to YES
sells traversing the stormy Gulf of
Mexico. An important connection
soon to be made is that of the new
road to Birmingham, Ala. This will
bring coal to Memphis (Which even
now is laid down here at 81 80 a ton)
and will make it in other respects
partaker in the phenomenal growth
of the rising Alabama city. The
Tennessee Midland now exists
only on paper. A vote on the
question OF assistance from Shelby
county is shortly to be taken. The
road will traverse nearly the length
of the State to Knoxville. There is
apparently no craze for railroad
building here, and yet the business
is under strong stimulus. II every
enterprise were to be so much in
luck as Huntington's Louisville,
New Orleans and Texas everybody
would want to build a line. This
road was constructed on alluvial